Thursday, November 1, 2007

Things have been very busy for us this past week, both at home and at work. As such, I haven't had nearly the time for beer-related pursuits. Fortunately, I skipped soccer last night so we could go to Eli's for dinner, which is starting to become a bit of a tradition for us on Halloween. We went a little later than usual because Mandy had class, so I hung around waiting for Trick-or-Treaters, of which there were none.

Surprisingly, Eli's is a bit dead on Halloween, despite hosting a Rogue tasting the past two years. The Rogue tasting is always a bit disappointing as they never bring any of my favorites. Last night was Dead Guy, Hazelnut Brown, and Chocolate Stout. No Brutal Bitter or Shakespeare Stout. We asked the rep about Shakespeare and he told us it works on an allocation basis...the more Rogue you sell in general, the more Shakespeare you can get your hands on. I guess this is why Eli's rarely has it since they usually only keep one Rogue tap and more often than not it's Dead Guy.

Unfortunately, we lost our private board shortly after arriving so I wasn't able to commit the list to memory. I do remember Great Divide Fresh Hop (phenomenal), Sierra Nevada Celebration (my second beer, but by this time I was deep into a spicy wrap so I certainly wasn't picking up the subtleties to compare it to years past), Aventinus, 90 minute, Great Divide Samurai Ale, and that's about all I got.

I was blown away by the Fresh Hop. Far and away the best wet hop ale I've had probably in forever.

Sorry for the lackluster update, but I was just glad to be getting out of the house.